Short-Term Project with Circus Eruption

Applicant endorsed by The Fore

Organisation Description

We're an inclusion charity, using circus workshops to support children and young people (most of whom face challenges like disability, care experience, being young carers etc) to challenge their limits, have fun with peers and grow in confidence and resilience! We're LONG TERM and free to attend, so everyone gets to be 'part of something' - brilliant for the whole community (volunteers and staff too!) and often lifechanging for the children and young people. Young people and volunteer led since we began in the early 90s. We need a big room to do circus workshops so we bought a listed former church building in 2019 which we opened in late 2021. We've constantly developed this alongside our 'real work' - took us 4 years to get heating, but it's sustainable and effective! - and we have a large second space to bring to life as well - we need it for existing work as well as future plans for impact and sustainability. We've got 2x 6min films about the building on our youtube - https://www.youtube.com/circuseruption (order should be 'so far' then 'the future' really!) - gives you a flavour of our 'real work' as well. We 'trade' circus workshops successfully, but also have skills and training in facilitation/consultation which we've not yet managed to market and sell. We know this is one of the keys to long term sustainability for us, along with our freehold listed building - which was a brave and brilliant buy for what was a very small charity at the time of purchase (and we're not massive now!).

What are they looking for?

We’re developing a ‘corporate’ team building / consultancy offer but there’s a gap between our skills and our confidence – we have a LOT to offer, we’re trained and experienced, but don’t know how to push ourselves forward and get people to actually buy our services, really.

Secondly, I’m a very strategic thinker, transparent, and highly keen to take everyone with me. I’ve worked hard to build a good board and staff team and foster genuine leadership at those levels to ensure that I’m accountable and that it’s the organisation that has the long strategy and it’s not all about me (!) – whilst still recognising the importance and responsibility of my position. HOWEVER – I’ve never been great at writing that down, so everyone’s going in the same direction, but it’s hard to see from the outside! We need help with the nuts and bolts of fleshing it all out.

Job link
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